, Middle Ages, 29 
tliors ¥7ere in bemg^ at the origin of print- 
ing, and were earlv iffued from the prefs as 
the manuals of that da}% in various parts of 
GhriftendoEi. 
It has been obferved, that the laft-men- 
tioned Saxon manufcript, was a tranilation 
of Lucius Apuleius Madaiirenjis i whofe 
workj, from feveral other circumftances, 
there is room to believe^ was, at that time^ 
more ditFofed and popular in England^ 
than any other. This author, who lived, 
in the age of the Antonines^ was born at 
Madura in Africa^ at that time a feat of 
iearning. He afterwards ftudied Car-^ 
thage^ and at Athens^ and for fome time ap- 
plied himfelf at Rome to jiirifprodence, but 
at _ length quitted it, and devoted himfelf 
wholly to philofophy and phyfic. He is 
well known as the author of the Miiejian 
FableSj, and other works of learning. His 
book De Herbis^ Jive de NGminibus ac 
Virtutibus Herbamm^ alone comes under 
our cognizance : la this he recites the 
names of medicinal herbs, in the Greek, 
Latin, Egyptian, Panic, Celtic, and Da- 
ciaa, and of fome in the oriental languageSo 
Thefe 
